Skilling programmes, better access to loans will ensure green transition of MSMEs: WRI India CEO

New Delhi: Skilling and incentive programmes for MSMEs and ensuring their ability to borrow through schemes like Mudra will help the sector make the green transition, WRI India CEO Madhav Pai said on Wednesday.

Pai noted that most micro, small & medium enterprises are exposed to climate shocks and MSMEs need to make the green transition to survive.

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"So, we need to come up with economic viability and incentive programmes that can be created and the capacity building and the skilling that will be required to make the MSME players go for the green transition," Pai told PTI in an interview.

"For example, we can no longer run textile factories on pet coke. And given that we have 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, there are stringent regulations in place to prevent such practices," the WRI India CEO said.

Increasing capital and capacity are required to make this transition, Pai said on the sidelines of Connect Karo, WRI India's annual event that convenes leaders and stakeholders, from across India and the globe, to share knowledge in addressing critical environmental and sustainability challenges.

"How do we design skilling programmes for MSMEs, how do we design financial instruments so that they can take loans that might be over a longer period of time," he said.

Further, lot of MSMEs are struggling with the ability to borrow, he said, adding, "We need to design programmes like the Mudra scheme that improve their ability to take loans."

The Mudra loan scheme, launched in 2015 under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), aims to provide financial support to micro and small enterprises.

But he asserted that, despite challenges, the MSMEs will eventually need to make the green transition to survive.

"Green transition is necessary for survival of MSMEs in the mid-term, both to make them resilient to climate disasters and also to ensure that they are producing products that are acceptable in the market," he told PTI.

Pai asserted that a huge number of jobs will be created in the country in the green space overt the next few years.

"MSME, construction sector are big decarbonising opportunities. Our model shows anything between one and three million green jobs can be created a year in the building & construction sector, as well as the MSME space. That's the size of the market that we are looking at," the WRI CEO added.

WRI India, an independent charity legally registered as the India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development.

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